Syracuse

8:24am

Politics

Rochester and Syracuse are two of a dozen nationwide cities to be receiving grant money from Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovations Teams program.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner will soon have an innovation team to help develop new ways to solve city problems. Miner says they’ll look at using big data to solve some of what she calls the city’s "intractable problems."

7:07am

Arts

Tony Russo, an engineer, uses tools in the new makerspace in Syracuse, set to formally open in September.

Ryan DelaneyWRVO

A new workshop is getting ready to open in Syracuse. It’ll be a place, known as a "makerspace," for anyone to come and sculpt, cut, weld or print.

Michael Giannattasio is a sculptor and metal worker by trade, but he knows his way around a 3-D printer, too. There are a couple set up in what Giannattasio refers to as the "clean space" in an old Syracuse factory building.

10:57am

Transportation

Rebuilding Interstate 81 through downtown Syracuse will mean impact to properties along it. Now a group opposed to that has outlined what impact a new, wider elevated highway could have on the cityscape.

The state transportation department says as many as 40 buildings in Syracuse could have to come down to make way for a wider highway cutting through downtown, since a new viaduct would have to be up to 30 feet wider to meet regulations for modern roadways.

12:07pm

Transportation

Traffic moves through downtown Syracuse at the intersection of Warren and East Washington Streets.

Ryan DelaneyWRVO

It’s what every commuter hates when trying to get to work in the morning: red lights. They slow drive times down and waste gas, but the city of Syracuse is working to upgrade its traffic light system, so drivers see more green.

"By coordinating the traffic lights, what happens is, we can tell the traffic light not only how long to be green in a certain direction, but when to go green," explains Harry Carlson of the city's public works department.

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ABOUT THIS PROJECT

The Innovation Trail is a collaboration
between Six upstate New York public media outlets, led by WXXI, along with
WBFO/WNED, WRVO, WSKG, WMHT and North Country Public Radio. The initiative, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), will help the public gain a better understanding of the connection between technological breakthroughs and the revitalization of upstate New York's economy. Reports will focus on research, development, education, funding, and policy issues around emerging fields like energy, information technology, biotech, nanotech, and photonics.